Cross Campus: 3.1.12

In memoriam. Moira Banks-Dobson ’11 was killed Tuesday night in a five-car crash caused by a drunk driver. She was 24.

Launched. Oprah, Lady Gaga and mama Gaga Cynthia Germanotta were all at Harvard on Wednesday to celebrate the launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, an organization that follows the message of acceptance and self-confidence expressed in Gaga’s hit 2011 single, “Born This Way.”

But not without controversy. A Facebook event asked Harvard students and affiliates to meet at 3 p.m. in front of Sanders Theater — where, inside, Gaga would be launching her Foundation — to ask the university to officially renounce a secret court it created in the 1920s to find and expel gay students and award them honorary degrees. Protestors said they would present Harvard administrators with an online petition in support of these demands which as of Wednesday night had received more than 5,600 signatures.

America’s Next Top Historian. After winning high praise among reviewers for his biography of George F. Kennan, history professor John Lewis Gaddis has won the seventh annual American History Book Prize for his work. The prize, which has been handed out by the New York Historical Society, is awarded for a nonfiction American history book “that is distinguished by its scholarship, its literary style and its appeal to a general as well as an academic audience.”

Happy Fifth Birthday! During Wednesday night’s dinner, Ezra Stiles Master Stephen Pitti delivered a cake to his college’s dining hall to celebrate the birthday of EB Saldaña ’14, whose Feb. 29 birthday makes her a “leap baby.” “The cake was delicious,” according to a source who attended the event.

Going viral? Fresh off the heels of their “Scarves” video, The Yale Record released a new video on Wednesday called “Jelly Beans.” The video features a scene in which Bea, played by Kat Lau ’13, is frustrated as Natey Weinstein ’14 and Olivia Scicolone ’14 loudly attempt to eat jelly beans as she tries to force them to watch a video on her smartphone.

Town-gown. Architecture professor Alan Plattus ARC ’76 spoke Wednesday night at the Milford Library on ways the city could improve its downtown. “I’m a huge fan of downtown Milford,” Plattus said, according to the New Haven Register.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1962 A trend piece remarks on a “revolution” in which students choose paperbacks over hardcover books.